Greg Hahn
JS: How did you get involved in model
aviation?
GH: I’ve been an airplane nut since before
I can remember. My dad took me in the
car in about 1964 and we sat off the end of
Runway 30 at Dobbins Air Force Base (now
a reserve base) in Georgia, and watched
the C-124 Globemasters do touch-and-gos.
From that time on, all I wanted to do was fl y
airplanes, and I proceeded to do whatever it
took to be around airplanes or airports.
My fi rst real hands-on experience was
the local fl ying fi eld, which in my town
happened to be the high school football fi eld,
so I was introduced to RC by hanging around
after football practice and watching the
locals fl y.
In the early 1970s, it would have taken
two or three summers’ pay to buy a storebought
radio, so I took one summer’s pay
and bought a four-channel
Heathkit radio and built
my own. At 17 I started
full-scale fl ying lessons,
soloed at nine hours, went
through college,
and four years later
I was a commercial
pilot, certifi ed
fl ight instructor, multiengine
instructor, and doing my fi rst stint as a
corporate pilot.
JS: How has model aviation impacted your life
and/or career?
GH: Model aviation has been with me
essentially my whole life. Since the early
1990s, it has been my entire career. I started
participating in Scale competitions and was
quickly successful. I was recruited into the
hobby industry through major sponsorships
and eventually moved into product- and
brand-management positions within the
industry.
In 2008, I stepped into my current
position as the Technical Director at AMA.
That was a move back home for me, because
I’m originally from Muncie, Indiana.
JS: In what disciplines of modeling do you
currently participate?
GH: I still do sport fl ying but have stopped
competing in major Scale contests. I
often participate in air shows and do
quite a bit of test fl ying for big projects
such as fl ying the H-1 during AMA’s
75th Anniversary celebration last year.
I am a fan of powerboat racing and
have started racing model powerboa
competitively in the Midwest. I’m lucky to
live in an area that is considered to be the
“hotbed” of model boat racing, so there are
plenty of venues in which to enjoy that part
of the hobby.
JS: What are your other hobbies?
GH: Not having kids of my own, I’ve sort of
had to be my own kid so I have had many
other hobbies from time to time. I have
a 20- by 24-foot train room in my house,
which contains an operating HO scale layout,
complete with mountains and 400 feet of
track.
I’m also a state and national champion
in competitive target archery. I do quite a
bit of hunting in the fall with good friends
Don Anderson, of Great Planes, and Justin
LaRoque.
I recently started a small taxidermy
business, which is growing steadily. I’m
hoping it will be my retirement business if I
ever get to retire one day.
JS: Who or what in uenced you the most?
GH: The most infl uential person for me
in modeling has been Nick Ziroli Sr. I’ve
built practically every model he’s designed
multiple times and I’ve used his designs for
all of my competition Scale projects during
the past 18 years. We have fl own together,
worked together, and been friends for years.
He’s what I call the modeler’s modeler!
JS: How did you get started as a Scale
competitor?
GH: I majored in history in college and
have always been extremely devoted to
the aviation history of World War II. I have
studied it intensely and have a large library
devoted to it.
I always did everything possible to make
my models look real with lots of detail and
then tried to fl y them as close as I could to
scale. I attended an International Miniature
Aircraft Association fl y-in back in the early
1990s where I was introduced to one of the
Scale Masters judges.
He asked me if I had ever considered
competing because my models looked as
though they could be competitive. That
got me to thinking I might give it a go, so
I grabbed a rule book and started my fi rst
competition project which was a 100-inch
span B-25 from Ziroli plans. I completed that
project and entered it in the static show at
Toledo in 1994 where it won the military
class. As they say, the rest is history.
—Jay Smith
MA Editor-in-Chief
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/06
Page Numbers: 180